Big Time Pan
by wolfy447
Summary: Kendall is visited by greek demi God who was known to be dead. Soon afterwards his friends begin dying one by one and he fights tooth and nail to escape the horror of his home town. JamesxCarlos LoganxKendall KendallxJames LucyxJo
1. Parting Gifts Part 1

The days go by so slowly now.

It's literally the only thing I can think about. That and how normal things are that should be utterly terrifying. I mean when you see the things I have... nothing bothers you except the slow ticking clock that seems to be warning me that I could go at any moment.

My name is Kendall Knight, this is the story of how I killed my friends.

I know that opening statement was pretty crass but it's not at all what you think. I'm not the kind of guy who goes around butchering people. No that would be Logan. I didn't think he would ever actually do it though.

It's 2019 now but if I'm going to tell you this terror tale I need you to jump into the past with me about seven years...

it was three days after James birthday. He was so excited about turning sixteen. The boys and I put together a little party of our own for him. We had to wait until Friday because he had plans with his family all week. I was kind of jealous of him I'm not going to lie... He was finally getting the hell out of this town. Or... he was supposed to.

Still I was there, I had to be. He was one of my best friends.

Logan was my best friend.

I couldn't get over the depressed look on doctor boys face the whole evening. A late evening in a tree house in the middle of the woods turned sour when James opened his gift from Carlos.

Beneath a crimson red wrapper and an old shoe box James pulled out of some tissue paper a brand new flesh light. You should have seen the fury in Logan's eyes. It was an insult and it took me years to figure out just why Logan snapped.

"What the fuck is that?" He glared from his spot in the corner.

James and Carlos were both sitting on the couch the four of us had tugged up there with a little help from my younger sister Katie and one of her contraptions.

I was in a roll away computer chair I had found at the local dump with my legs propped up on the window sill so I could see the moon. She was full that night. "It's a toy. Jay here..." Carlos placed a hand on his buddy's shoulder. "Is going to change lives at that school."

"Yeah, after joining Kappa fap fap fe fi homophobe mega si." Logan rose up and crossed over to the counter to open our mini fridge pulling out a bottle of vodka to turn it up dry. I couldn't take my eyes off of the vein in his neck. It was a weird shade of black, it was usually blue like the veins in any white boys body. Especially one as pale as doctor boy.

"Dude... it's just a joke..." James tried to cover for Carlos not realizing he was only about to make the situation worse.

"A joke littered with the fowl taste of-"

"Logan..." I stood up before he said something he regretted.

With that he slammed the bottle down and walked over to the trap door on the ground pulling it open to climb down. He trudged through the darkness tightening his jacket as another summer night turned cold with autumn creeping up fast.

I looked back at James. Then down at the moon locket and the vanity scarf Logan and I had gotten for him. "I'll go talk to him... he's probably just processing this the wrong way." I assured before crawling down the ladder making sure to pull the door shut as I disappeared below the floorboard.

I could feel the world spinning in those moment. Let's be honest, a sixteen year old kid like me had no clue what I was about to see but with the home life I had I learned to expect the worse.

Slipping I grabbed onto a tree looking down to see that I had stepped in something wet. I figured it was a puddle of mud but when I raised up my vans to check I saw that it wasn't red clay, it was just red.

"Logan?" My heart started pounding. Terrified something happened to him I started running around frantically. Within moments I was lost in the woods I had once grown so familiar with.

Fishing into my pockets I pulled out a half a blunt and a lighter quaking with paranoia as I slid my back down a great oak tree to draw in a deep breath of THC and CBD into my lungs releasing them back into the air around me with a sigh of relief. 'What the fuck Logan...' I thought to myself.

"You should make haste." I heard someone say.

Looking up I saw something in the trees looking down at me. I had no fucking clue what I was looking at but what ever it was made my dick hard both physically and spiritually. "I'm sorry." I spoke with wide eyes as a man with the hindquarters, legs, and horns of a ram jumped down to look me in the face. "You're friend is broken..." It said to me. "Knows too much if you ask me..." It snatched the blunt from my hand to purse his lips around it and drawn in a drag. Passing it back he warned me. "The convenience of technology kills the humanity in man. I fear your friend has pumped his rod a few too many times staring at that tiny device many late evenings and it's thwarted his vision on the beauty of sexuality."

I had no fucking clue what this thing was talking about but I watched as it turned heel and began walking away. "That blood belongs to an innocent creature. Once man has a taste for playing God it will take a God to fix things." With that the monster was gone. I was alone with the shimmer of the lake beside the oak tree.

I looked back in the direction from whence I came. The eerie feeling of defeat washing over me. "What is in this weed?" I raised a brow speaking out loud. "Kendall!" James' voice came from somewhere behind me and reached around in a seated position to see him running towards me. "You find him?"

I shook my head. "No... but how did you find me?"

"You have a distinct smell. Even Mr. Poloski notices when you're not in class before he reaches the door." He reached down to help me up. "Come on... it's late we should head back home. Let's go get Carlos."

"He's in love with you James." I said as the two of us sluggishly made our way through the thick trees. "Who Carlos?"

When James looked at me for confirmation I assured him. "More than you'll ever know..."

We reached the tree house...

The moment we could see it we both knew something was wrong. "I'll go get him..." James said as he grabbed a hold of one of the bars on the ladder pulling back his hand to see it was covered in blood. "Carlos? CARLOS!" His eyes shot up to the light coming from the door.

James rushed up in side and cried out with a deep core shaking scream.

I dropped the weed and dusted myself off before climbing the stair case.

I found him clutching Carlos Garcia's naked body to his chest. Both of them were drenched in blood. James was rocking back and forth with his eyes shut tightly.

My attention drew to the flesh-light Carlos had gotten James as a gift. It was lodged between his teeth, shoved down his throat, his tongue pulled through the latex factory made ass. It really was an unspeakable act.

"James... James we have to go."

"He did this!" There was a deep bellowing anger in Jame's voice.

"Jay?" I whispered holding a hand out to him. "Please..."

"He killed him! He killed my litos!" He was vibrating with a rage I've never seen before. "Kenny..." He looked up at me with these ocean eyes. "Help... help me." He laid the boy down and turned away. "T-take it out... all I want to do is kiss him... please." I watched James' pale face and tears streamed down his cheek onto his once white shirt now drenched with the contents of Carlos Garcia's veins.

It was the first of the most mind shattering acts I had ever done.

The way his teeth touched again when I removed the toy from his lips. The way his tongue slithered back into his mouth. The way his expression morphed into a more comfortable and peaceful appearance.

I threw it to the side watching it roll across the wood of the floor to stop just before it reached the whole of the door.

James rolled around to pull Carlos' face to his own. Even I tasted blood when they kissed. Even I died a little that night.


	2. Parting Gifts part 2

Two weeks went by before anyone took down the yellow police tape they had spun up around our tree house. Until that night, only we had known about it's wear abouts.

James and I stood before it in the blinding light of the sun wearing our shades.

His blue shorts were about two inches above the knee and perfectly matched the Florida shirt he had gotten from his aunt. She was the one who was taking him to that school out there. With his sneakers and the baby blues hidden behind those black UV blockers he really was the color of sad. A deep dark abyss of blue.

Logan was missing.

The Garcia's hadn't even spoken to us, let alone let James get any kind of memorabilia for his late lover.

As for me... I just felt... numb. I wasn't affected by any of this. It worried me how little I cared. It worried me how distant I was. How distant I am today.

The inside of our hide away was an absolute wreck. The detectives hadn't left a stone unturned. All I could do was stare as James moved across the mess they had left that neither of us planned on cleaning up. My interest peaked when he knelt down behind the couch pressing his hands against the false board to pop it free. I met him down there and rested my chin on my knee as he pulled out the box.

The box was a small wooded chest we had hidden there when we were thirteen. That was the worst year of our lives. Up until now... but puberty sucks for everyone.

He twisted the lock and the lid swung open. Each of us had placed one item inside the box with a solemn promise we would never open it until one of three things happened.

One, we survived the apocalypse.

Two, we added a fifth member to our group.

Three, we lost a member.

In this case... we had lost two. I could tell he didn't care about Logan anymore. I, however, was still deeply concerned with why he wasn't here. Something told me he wasn't the one who killed Carlos. Something told me it was something out of all of our control.

James pulled out a set of sweat bands. One for each wrist and a head band. All purple. That was Carlos' color. We all had one. James was blue, Carlos was purple, Logan was green, and I was yellow. To me it was more of a cream or a brownish white but the yellow fit the theme.

Each of us had a dream. Each of us had a goal. Each one of us would change the world.

James was the face, he would change the way the world looked at itself.

Carlos was the body, he would change the way the world moved.

Logan was the brain, he would change the way the world thought.

I was the soul, I would change the way the world felt.

"Boys! Are you up there..." As with every rainbow, there's always more than four colors. Black. Lucy Stone was a stone cold rock star, the ears. She would change the way the world listened.

I stood up to leave James with his thoughts to smile down at the girls from the window. "Hey."

"Hey yourself..." Silver. Jo Taylor was an actress with the worlds best poker face, the skin. She would change the way the world presented itself.

"You coming down any time soon?" Red. Camille Roberts was the wicked witch of the west side, the blood. She would change the way the world loved.

My concern fell onto her the moment she said that. Camille was Logan's person. Even when they weren't together they were together. A due people fawned over. I admired her... she and I were pretty close considering how connected I was to Logan. He was like a brother to me, even more so than James or Carlos. I love them all but Logan and i had this interconnection I can't really explain.

I looked back to see James nodding as he slipped one of the green bands onto his wrist before rising to his feet still clutching the box. The two of us left the tree house.

"Tell me..." Lucy spoke first. "You abandoning us pretty boy?"

He looked up slipping his shades off to tuck them in his shirt with a sigh. "Never..." Brushing through the girls he started walking into the trees.

We followed.

I froze when we got to the oak. Jo was always paying attention to me so she noticed when my face had changed. "You okay?"

I snapped a look in her direction that caused her to take a step back.

"You look like you've seen a ghost." Camille climbed the tree choosing to sit in the exact spot I had met the creature.

"Maybe so... existence is weird." I said as James knelt down on the ground with the box.

"I want to do something special..." He whispered.

The girls shared a look. A weird smile spread across their face.

Reaching into her purse Jo pulled out a little boat. She looked at me. "I went by your house first to see if you were there." She gave me this sheepish half grin when she handed it to me. "Your sister gave me this... she said something about a dream and mentioned your special box."

I'm afraid of my sister. I don't know why but she's always filling the scene even when she isn't around. I like to think Katie is a computer chip, something that belongs no where near mankind. A tech geek. She's going to change the way the world evolves.

"She mentioned that you guys all have something special in the box so we..." She reached into her bag again to pull out a small digital camera. One she had since she was about eight years old. We actually met with the flash going off in my eyes as she took my picture.

Lucy reached around behind her neck and unhooked her chain. Obsidian was a stone of strength. Something she needed if she was going to survive the next few weeks.

Camille stuck her hand in her swamp girl boots to pull out a thin white candle that dripped red wax when burned.

With my warbler feather quill, Logan's framed monarch, and Jame's lucky comb, maybe Carlos wouldn't feel so lonely.

James put everything in the box and set the box inside the boat. Making sure to pull out the glass encased butterfly to fling it against the oak shattering it to bits before pushing the boat into the water to float down the lake. A bitter taste filled my mouth as the vision of bones being ripped from Logan's open chest filled my mind.

Camille must have felt or saw something to because she looked at me like the world was in the process of ending. Maybe... just maybe... it was.


	3. Special Delivery

Nine months went by since that day.

Nine months went by since James left for Florida.

Summer was finally here and I was relieved to finally be done with junior year. At the same time I was angry with my self that my ugly beat up ford was still parked out on the front lawn, broken down, and I had absolutely no motivation to fix it. I'd kill to get out of this town but why couldn't I work up the energy to get it done and get out...

Yet there I was with my legs propped up on the window sill of my bedroom at the six AM hour waiting for the sun to rise. I did that every night. I can't sleep unless I'm certain tomorrow has come.

I slid off the chair and left my room. As I walked through the hallway I spotted Katie in her room, she doesn't sleep at night either but it's mostly because she's on her laptop doing God knows what. I couldn't help but notice the tears streaming down her face but shrugged it off figuring she was watching another crass show on Netflix.

I entered the kitchen and grabbed an apple out of the basket on the island in the center of the room before sliding up on the stool reaching over to pull Shakespear's A midsummer night's dream closer towards me when I got a ding on my phone.

It was James. He'd been off the map since he left town, no social media, no texting, no calling. Not a word until that moment. _Knock Knock._

I furrowed a brow removing my hand from the thick pages shoving the apple in my mouth biting down on it so it wouldn't fall before I hopped off the stool and walked over to the front door pulling it open to reveal my old friend.

"James... when did you get back."

"Last night..." He looked out of breath.

"Why are you dressed like that?" I asked noting his tie dye t-shirt and gym shorts that complimented his knee high socks and Carlos' wrist band on his left arm.

"I started working out, I even joined a yoga studio in Miami." He used his eyes to ask me if he could come in so I stepped out of the way shutting the door behind me. "Do you want to go for a walk with me?" He gave me a sheepish half grin.

"It's six AM..." I furrowed my brows at him but he laughed.

"You don't go to bed until 8AM."

"Well... okay. Let me get dressed."

An hour later we were rounding up on the local library. I figured it would be our turn point and we would walk back to my place but I wasn't expecting a phone call from Lucy.

"Hello?" I held the device up to my ear and waited for her to respond.

"Hey, have you heard from James?" She sounded weird. Like something was bothering her but it wasn't because she missed the guy.

"Actually..." I looked over at him watching him fiddle with the sweat band as he rested against the staircase. "Yeah. Why?"

"A package for him... uh... showed up at my house in the middle of the night. There's no return address and I don't know the forward."

"He's with me, were like a block from your house... want us to swing by?"

"Yeah..."

I assured her we could be there in ten minutes if we kept the pace we already had. She told me to hurry, she was getting ready to leave tonight for a gig in Kingrise City which was four hours away.

I could tell James was weary... the last time he opened a gift the evening wasn't so pleasant. He fiddled with the tape before stripping it off crumpling it in his hands and laying it down on the coffee table. Lucy hovered over his right shoulder and I was at his left. I could see he was shaking with fear.

He pulled back the flaps and stepped back with a look on his face that was difficult to read. He had skipped right over terror and went straight to anger. "James..." I reached for him but he pulled away moving to sit on the couch in front of the computer desk.

"Oh my god..." Lucy cried.

I turned to watch her pull out the very same fleshlight that killed Carlos.

"Who would do that?" It was all I could think to ask.

"Seriously?" James looked over at me. "We both know who did this..."

We both noticed the rocker chick sticking her fingers inside the hole and I almost chucked that apple up from earlier. When she pulled out a piece of paper this feeling entered the room. The same one I got the night I met that creature.

Her expression changed.

"What is it?" James asked still refusing to move.

"It's the website Jo's on..." Turning over the parchment in her hand she shuddered. "It's her user..."

"I've been meaning to ask you about that." I told her. The reason I hadn't spent much time with either one of them over the past few months was because of how rocky their relationship had been.

"What website?" Pretty boy was getting more and more frustrated as this went on.

"Ever since she got that webcam for christmas she's been _making a little extra cash_." The insult in her words were as clear as her track record.

"And you're okay with that?" I popped one eyebrow in confusion.

"Of course not... but I love her. So I'll support what ever she does."

She looked down at the paper. Then her vision moved to the computer. We followed her gaze. Clearly... someone wanted us to see something. Everything in me said it was a bad idea.

_Bandito dot com_

Her profile was extremely ludicrous. Images I had seen in person before Lucy got into town. Images I wasn't really interested in seeing again. A green light next to her username and main photo suggested she was active. A black screen flashing below with the words: _Time To Live: 3 minutes._

"It's 8AM is she really about to do this?" Lucy asked.

I couldn't help but yawn, I was exhausted. "It's about my bedtime... I don't really feel comfortable watching this." I looked back at James. "You wanna go?"

"Shut up..." Lucy held her hand over my lips and my attention was directed to her screen. Christina Aguilera's Genie in a bottle bumping in the back ground

"Hey guys welcome back to my channel." Jo smiled.

Her crop top had the number 23 in bold silver and pink letters across her braless chest. A pair of black panties being the only thing below her waist.

"As you know I love getting gifts from all of you." She was speaking like an annoying sorority girl. A voice I had never heard her do before. "The delivery lady dropped this bad boy off this morning." She held up a box about the same size as the one James got.

"Oddly though, I couldn't find a return address so I have no clue who to thank." She sat down on her velvet red bed and placed the box in her lap.

"Oh my god..." Lucy whispered removing her hand from my face to dig in her pockets. "I should call her right?" She gave me this look like I had all the answers but I didn't. I was tired and honestly didn't want to watch one of my closest friends play with herself on live camera. Any other guy would be thrilled right now but even James had his eyes on other things.

His arms were crossed over his chest and he stared at nothing.

"Oooh..." Jo said as she ripped open the box with a giggle.

"She's not answering..." Lucy was going into full blown panic mode.

"It's probably fine." I knew it wasn't. Why didn't I care? Why couldn't I feel anything. "She probably does this all the time."

On screen Jo pulls from the depths of the box a brand new twelve inch destroyer and a bottle of warming liquid personal Jelly. "How magical." She winks at the camera and I automatically rolled my eyes like because I felt like I had seen enough.

"I'm leaving..." I sighed turning away from the screen.

"It's already so warm..." Jo moans as she rubs it over her hands and down on her bronze thighs with a sneer, biting down on her lip and eyeing the camera like she was looking into my soul. Why couldn't I walk away from that? Why must my eyes be so drawn to something so vulgar.

She squirted a fair amount onto the tip of the new toy she had gotten and slipped the string of her panties to the side revealing that tiny little eighteen year old slit between her legs that looked unused to the untrained eye. I knew better. Lucy knew better. She was slow and gentle when she pressed it to her opening her eyes dead locked on the camera. I was getting angry that I couldn't shake the feeling that she knew I was watching her.

"Why the hell isn't she answering!" Lucy was about to kick in the screen.

"It's getting really warm." She paused looking down at her hands which she pulled away from the halfway in silicone. "Should it be this hot?" She sighed and my mind got fuzzy. Red dots formed on her thick meaty thighs and tiny doll like hands. She began to hyperventilate and panic as the blistering sores grew bigger. Ripping the silicone out of her privates she screamed.

1,907 live viewers watched as she began bleeding from her vagina. I was one of those 1,907 and all I could think about as she fell over onto the floor was 'how many men women and little boys just had an orgasm to Jo Taylor's death?' Lucy shouted making a break for the exit. The haunting music fading out as blood pooled around her small frail body.

The screen even had Jame's attention now. A horrified expression permanently planted on his face as we both watched her account flash red with a sign that read _'please standby. We seem to be having technical difficulties.' _Even then... I felt nothing.


	4. life hacked

I wasn't expecting James to hug me.

When the screen finally faded to black and the computer shut itself down his arms sunk around my torso and he pressed his head in the crook of my neck. I wanted to melt in his touch but I couldn't. It was just an uncomfortable numbness.

"We should go..." I whispered trying to sound as sympathetic as possible.

"Why haven't you got out yet Kenny?" It was a fair question. Why haven't I packed a bag and just started walking?

"Because every time I get to the highway a voice tells me it's not time."

I would have done something about the website on the computer but my mind decided against it when I pictured in my head all the nasty things Lucy's father probably watched every night. I just made sure to lock the door when I left.

James spent the day at my house. He just sat in my window sill while i slept and I can't begin to tell you how comfortable that made me. I was extremely exhausted and unaffected by what was happening but still a small part of me appreciated his presence in my home. Out of all of my friends he's the only one I'm a hundred percent certain wont kill me to get ahead in life.

I was happy to feel a small hint of sadness when I thought about the fact that he was leaving at the end of the summer. Sleep came so easily the moment I felt it.

When I finally awoke it was dark outside and his pretty face was merely inches from mine. His eyelashes were long, his skin so clear, and those lips were a perfect shade of salmon. Even as he slept that quaff hair lay in the right place over his gentle face. I might have been in love with him at one point but when my desire to escape kicked in all my infatuation and attraction to anything except the moon or the open road faded away. I would like to think I could find love but it's too late now.

"Kenny..." Katie's small voice came from the door frame.

I rolled my head over to look at her. She was incredibly distraught.

"I just got an email... can you please come here..." What was so taxing on her soul that she actually left the comfort of her room to get my help? She usually tackles everything on her own.

I spun around to press my feet to the blue shag rug carpet, sighing as I stood up and walking over to her in the haze of neon and ultraviolet rays that lit up my room in the darkness. Behind the blue curtain i kept tied up in front of my door way I laid my hand on her shoulder and looked into the void that was her eyes. "You okay?"

"No..."

There's an uncomfortable amount of white in Katie's room. It's mind numbing to even walk by but as for walking in it feels like being prepped for surgery. She sat down at her desk and adjusted her series of pens and journals before pulling up the lid to her laptop.

"The email led me to a website called DeadCity Dot Co. I found a series of videos incredibly disturbing but the direct link was to Jo's incident." She started typing furiously in a small window on the side of the screen. Katie's incredible code hacking skills make it difficult to trust her.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket to see that Lucy had messaged me a couple hours ago. _On my way home. They have her in the ICU. I should be at the hospital by 9PM. Please meet me there._

"Hey." Katie snapped her fingers without looking back at me. "This is serious look."

She opened a link and the Disney channel logo popped up.

"My name is Carlos Garcia and I'll be auditioning for a minor dance roll in 'Shake It Up." My attention was caught like a fish in a net.

He was in the tree house. The exact date of the day he was murdered was listed directly below the video. 'All Electric' by Anna Margret and Never mind started playing on his blue tooth speaker he carried around with him everywhere he went.

I was mesmerized almost immediately. It was like watching him in his element. Dancing is what he lived for. "Katie what is this?" I asked looking over to see she was covering her face. "I can't watch it again." She sniffled and rose up from the chair crossing her tile floor to enter the hallway leaving me alone with the prison like white walls, white sheets, and white curtain that hid the outside world. How does she do it? How is she not insane?

Carlos froze...

I froze...

The computer began to glitch. I almost fell backwards when it flashed and his shirt had been ripped from his body. Someone was now holding the camera. He was shaking, terrified of what ever was looking at him. I heard a snarl and watched as the Latino flinched and slowly began removing his jeans.

Climbing onto the couch i noticed how he kept looking outside hoping James or I would show up. As I watched all I could think of was why I hadn't come back sooner. How long was I out there for? Who was holding the camera?

On his hands and knees he began to pray in his native tongue as two beasts stepped into the frame. Removing their hoods I saw the first to be Logan... the second was James. "Katie!" I shouted "Get in here now..."

She whimpered as she poked her head through the door. "What sick twisted game are you trying to play with me?" I was screaming.

It was no surprise to me when James entered the room behind her and immediately looked at the computer. "W- what is that?" He brushed past her and pressed against me as he stared at himself on the screen. "Tha- that-" He gulped and took a deep breath. "That's not me..." He had this hatred in his eyes, a glare filled with the scorn of a thousand demons. Tears wetting his cheeks as he gripped the sides of the laptop. "What is this?" A harsh whisper.

I looked at the clock in the bottom left hand corner. 8:23.

"Come on." I said shutting the laptop. "We have to get to the hospital."

The two of us walked past Katie who had slid her back down the wall. She shut the door behind us once we slipped through the frame and I heard her begin to sob. James was trembling as we walked through the kitchen. He stopped and placed his hand over my chest. "That wasn't me Kendall. Tha-"

I cut him off. "I know... I believe you."

His baby blues looked up at me blood shot and dripping from their ducts. "He died... thinking... I was a monster." His breaths raspy and misplaced.

I grabbed him by the shoulders and stared into the windows of his soul. "Carlos wasn't stupid. He knows the difference between the man he loves and what ever that was. We will figure this out. I promise." In that moment I was grateful. Because for the first time in a very long time I felt something other than numbness.


	5. Cameo Appearence

"Well... this place keeps getting better and better." She drew in a breath from the butt of her cigarette.

James and I approached the main entrance to the emergency room with caution for this was a face I had never seen. Growing up in my home town you knew everyone.

"Let me guessss." She continued with a hiss. "Jimmy and Kendall right?" Ashing her cigarette on her leather boot i spotted the brand mark on her calf. The shape of an eye.

"His name is James." I spoke rather coldly to the stranger. "Who the hell are you?"

"Samantha Pucket." It hit me... internet sensation. Co-star on the infamous I-Carly webshow. I've seen a few episodes my self but I prefer to spend my time scribbing away my thoughts on anonymous tabloids and blogs in an attempt to understand my own mind. It's been a while since their last post. I remember the sad sign off and her friend moving away abandoning the poor misfit.

"I handle my own. As for you two... you look like you need a little pick me up." She dropped the vice crushing it with her heel. "After were done here you can go back with me and the platypus to Kingrise." She spun to enter the automatic double doors.

I looked back at James. He had worry written all over his face. Poor kid wasn't use to all this carnage and confusion.

The rush of the hospital was always the same. It was the best hospital in an 100 mile radius so people from every town wound up here. From the scream of pregnant women in labor to the cries of new born infants. From the silent sob of fresh widows to the pale agony of child loss. From the guy with a pitch fork in his ass to the toddler with a block of wood hot glued to his hand. From the girl with greasy black and green hair checking herself in to the psych ward to the guy walking out allowing her to take his place with absolutely no clue the either one exists.

I spotted Lucy, she looked between me and Sam and then back at me. The 'oh shit' look on her face being the most obvious thing going on in the haze of everything around me. The three of us approached her and silent took our seats.

James sat right next to me and I left one seat between me and the trouble maker who took the spot right in front of Lucy. "Now we wait..." I whispered.

All Lucy could do was nod.

I don't understand women, much less lesbians, but something told me the two of them were more than just friends. Who knew what the three of them had been doing together without telling anyone at all those 'gigs' down in Kingrise. I liked the idea of that town but it was the opposite direction of where I wanted to go.

The way Sam carried herself was something I had always figured Lucy was immensely attracted to but she and Jo had been an item for the longest time. Some even considered them an unstoppable force. Guess they never accounted for a serial killer.

Of course they wouldn't... especially considering we were about to meet the police officer who would completely toss the idea to the wind like the possibility of anyone ever finding him tollerable.

"Officer Kennedy." He reached out to shake Lucy's hand when she stood to confront him. She did not accept. "We've rulled this as an accident. Her parents called and said they wanted nothing to do with her. I'm only telling you this because she listed you as her one and only emergency contact."

"Are you kidding me." Lucy scoffed. "They don't care that she's injured."

"Uh..." Just then Dr. Stephens stepped out from behind the set of double doors.

"Officer... I'm going to have to ask you to leave." She had this look on her face that shook even the man in uniform. He stepped back. "You have no right to break the spirits of these kids. Go." She nodded towards the exit and turned to look at Lucy with a warm smile.

"Hi..." She looked at me figuring I was important.

I merely nodded in response.

"Jo Taylor fought really hard I want you to know." With the doctors words I was on my feet in an instant ready to catch Lucy before she crashed to her knees. The doctor crouched down to take Lucy's hands into her own. "I feel you should know... her last word was your name. It was without a doubt the most beautiful moment in my career since I lost my husband." And with those final words Dr. Izzy Stephens stood and turned to exit the emergency room. How strange, my humanity increased with every piece of this puzzle.

I would have gone... but I had to work that night. What? I was concerned with one thing and one thing only... getting the hell out of that town. Third shift at the truck stop dinner off exit 100 was the closest I got to the highway. Every time I looked outside all I wanted to do was run.

Besides our chatty hostess Cherry, a woman radiating with more color than the restaurant needed, we had three other servers and a manager here. Pretty fair for sunday night. I was only going to be there maybe three hours if I got lucky.

Meanwhile, James sat in a closed section close to the window that held within it's stainless plate glass the beautiful array of headlights that seemed to vanish and return in such a magical way, using my laptop to take a couple summer courses. I admired his eagerness to finish high school so early but where was he going to go when he was done. He turned eighteen in a few months and the world was his oyster.

"Hey Wanda..." I looked over and smiled at one of the women I worked with.

I was fairly new and the dorky manager only hired me because and I quote 'I had moxy'. What ever the hell that means.

"Are you doing okay?" She and I had shared conversation a time or two before but I wasn't expecting her response to be so crass.

"No. It's a shit day so don't talk to me..."

I just nodded and continued to put in the order for table 33. Once I was done I had a few minutes to spare so I peaked over to look at James at table 11 who had this horrified look on his face. His eyes wondered up to me as a single tear dripped down his face and he ripped the headphones out of his head blinking rapidly and sliding over.

The music in the restaurant muffled the conversation in the 10's and 20's section but there were only four tables in the whole building in use. Two of which were on the complete opposite side in the bar area. I walked over pulling my server book out and tossing it onto the table.

"What?" I already knew it had something to do with Logan.

What bothered me was the fact that Jo was on the screen too. DeadCity dot Com "Sing for me." feat. "Stone Hard."

My stomach dropped as I saw the amount of people logged on and watching the live stream of the inhumane tactics occurring beneath this small city pub. The mascara streaming down Lucy's face. Sam's glare. The butter sock between her teeth dripping with blood and oil as she growled at the people who walked around them cracking whips and jerking on their leashes.

"How come no one has taken this down or done anything yet?" James asked.

"Because important people are behind this Jay..." I looked at him as I shut the laptop. "There's nothing we can do..."

"Kendall you're cut." Said Tanya, off the clock we called her Tracy. Tracy couldn't handle this job so she invented Tanya to get her through the shift.

"Heard." I smiled grabbing the server book and dropping it back into my apron. "It wont take me long, you want to stay at my house tonight?" I asked him with a raised brow.

"No..." He whispered. "I'll drop you off but I'm going home."

I nodded and walked away.


End file.
